Sports

Rangers wonder what if?

NEW YORK -- As Glen Sather slowly made his way down the hallway and towards the New York Rangers dressing room, with his head down, as the only one in the building wearing a trench coat, you wonder if he's thinking: Would any of this be different with Rick Nash?

Would Sather's mistake-filled run of operating the Rangers have been corrected in this strange playoff spring by completing the deal he worked so hard on and couldn't find a way to make it happen?

The Rangers aren't exactly on the ropes, but it's just about 50-50 whether the top seed in the Eastern Conference advances to the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Just as it was about 50-50 they would survive an opening round where they were primarily outplayed by the Ottawa Senators. The Washington Capitals have been full value taking the Rangers to seven games -- turning the series into Saturday night's best of one. All this in a most unusual playoff spring.

When the post-season began, the assumption was the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins would be the toughest outs in the East. They both lost first round. And when the Philadelphia Flyers showed so much speed and gumption in Round 1, they emerged as logical favourites. Now, they're gone. The Rangers, first in the East but hardly any-one's choice to make it through to the Cup final, play a game that may, in fact, define their season.

Win and they're into the conference final against New Jersey. Lose and this series -- and even the season -- goes down as one large opportunity lost, a Stanley Cup run that wasn't. This series has been a tightrope walk for the Rangers. They win a triple overtime game after Alex Ovechkin hit the post earlier and take a game they probably should have lost. They trail by a goal with seven seconds to go in Game 5, tie the game, score in overtime, two power-play goals on one double minor, and a loss becomes a win. The games in this series have been that close, that unpredictable.

The Rangers have been more fortunate than good in the series, but you look at this team and look at the general manager and see the opportunity to build something with the great Henrik Lundqvist in goal and you have to believe there would not have been a seventh game in Round 1 with Rick Nash in the Rangers lineup, and quite likely there wouldn't be a seventh game Saturday at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers made all kinds of offers for the available scoring winger, just not an offer the Columbus Blue Jackets were willing to take. Columbus wanted young Chris Kreider. The Rangers said no. Columbus wanted one of their Top 4 defencemen. The Rangers said no. The Rangers offered up volume: First-round pick after first-round pick, this year's, last year's, a few other moving parts.

But imagine Nash with this Rangers team now. They don't have a big forward who gets on the inside, who can create his own offence, who can cause defensive mismatches for the opponent. Nash scored just 30 goals this season, his worst total in years. But he did that without any kind of help around him, without a centre, with a team that offered little, and without any kind of motivation.

Now take the nine-year veteran who has never won a playoff game, never been in more than one round, never had anything close to an opportunity to play for the Stanley Cup and and plunk him one of the Rangers top lines and see the difference. Years ago, Cliff Fletcher was willing to trade away Brett Hull so he could win a Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames, the only Stanley Cup in that franchise's history. Sather was unwilling to make the kind of difficult investment needed to bring Nash to New York.

In this series, Carl Hagelin has played on the same line with Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik, a choice position with the Rangers. Hagelin has no points in six games against Washington. Brian Boyle, a surprising fixture in Round 1 until he was hurt, has no goals in the series. Rangers captain Ryan Callahan has one. Derek Stepan, one of the players the Rangers offered to Columbus, has no goals in the series. The talented Gaborik, who plays too much on the periphery, has three, one of them a junk goal late Wednesday night, the biggest one the triple overtime winner where he did none of the work except convert a centre-out pass.

The Rangers look small up front, don't have enough net presence, and if it's not obvious now, it may be should they advance to the next round and play the Devils.

In their three losses in this series, they have scored all of four goals. With Rick Nash in Ranger colours, there would be no seventh game. This series would already be over.